Out of the Cage
by Skye Eagle
Summary: An Au in which the beta kids trolls have been turned into mutants by none other than the school! But what happens when Maximum Ride is shoved back into the picture? Contains Karezi, Fax, AriSol, Feferi x Eridan, Rose x Kanaya, etc. Rated T for censored cursing.
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own Homestuck or Maximum Ride. Pity, isn't it? Also, any variance in the characters is a result of their circumstances. They are closer to each other, and more protective of each other. And sadly, there is no kismesitude. It just doesn't fit in human society, y'know?**

**WARNING: Contains so much cursing, you'd need a soap factory to clean it all out.**

* * *

MAXIMUM RIDE struggled against the eraser's stiff grip as he hauled her along the halls of the lab, more erasers following behind, carrying the other flock members. How had they been captured again? They had been doing so good evading them, and then, BOOM! Captured. Caught like a fly in a web. She tugged harder, not even fazing the hulking beast as he carried her to an unfamiliar room, filled with somewhere around fifteen or sixteen dog crates with shadowy figures barely moving inside. They appeared to be knocked out, and as soon as she entered the room, Max could tell why. The scent of a sleeping agent lingered in her nose as the eraser shoved her into one of the six unoccupied crates on one side of the room. She rammed her shoulder up against the bars as the doors shut and the sleeping agent once again filled the room.

* * *

When Karkat woke up, the first thing he noticed was his splitting headache. The damned sleeping gas had some annoying side effects.

The second thing he noticed was the extra six crates across the room. He was confused. Surely they hadn't been given any younger experiments to raise, had they?

The figure inside twitched, proving to him that, yes, the whitecoats were smarts enough to not try and have them raise a child.

As Karkat looked closer, he guessed that there were probably four girls and two guys**((He thinks Iggy is a girl))** inside the crates.

The self proclaimed leader bumped into his cage door, finding it unlocked. "Oh, come _on_. _Another_ f*cking roaming day?! God dammit, we're probably going to be half dead after our next testing session!" Because, y'know, we get time to roam, they get to torture us. Totally fair.

Karkat hesitantly stepped out, waiting for something to happen. When nothing did, he hurried across the room to a smaller cage with a cat tail hanging out of it. Careful not to step on the tail, Karkat opened the cage door and shook the girl inside.

"Nep, c'mon, wake up. We've got free time. Wake up, you don't want to miss it. C'mon, get up and wake Equius up!"

At the sound of her friend/crush's name, the Korean-American girl stirred, opening one eye to face her half-brother.

"Karkitty? What is it? How'd you get out of your cage? Wait, don't tell me! We have another free time, don't we Karkitty? Tell me!"

Karkat groaned and rubbed his forehead. "Geez Nep, I have a killer headache. And yes, we've got freetime. We also have freaky mutations and six new roommates."

Nepeta looked around, finally noticing the six new crates.

"Woah! When did they get here? Have you met them? Are they nice? Are any of them cute? Ooh! I bet they are! Maybe they're like us! I-"

Karkat held his head with one hand, the other covering the cat girl's mouth.

"Nep. Headache, remember?" Nepeta grinned sheepishly.

"Oops, sorry." The older male sighed.

"It's fine Nep. Anyways, we need to wake up the others."

The girl grinned. "Okey dokey Karkitty!" She bounded across the room to Equius' crate, where the older male was sound asleep, his horse tail occasionally twitching. She murmured something, gently shaking him. A small, tired smile graced Karkat's face before he headed to the crate set apart from the others, where his sleeping friend resided within.

As Karkat attempted to wake Gamzee up, Nepeta and Equius woke everyone except the six newcomers up, and everyone formed a semicircle around Karkat as he woke up Gamzee.

While everyone was distracted, Max and the flock got out of there crates, quietly looking around, taking everything in, when Gazzy accidentally tripped over a crate.

Karkat had just woken up Gamzee up when a crash sounded across the room. He stood up, the others clearing a path for him to see. Six people were standing stock still. A young girl was holding her older brother's hand from his spot on the floor. A mocha skinned girl was standing near them, an older boy standing behind her. A goth boy stood off to the side, seemingly indifferent. And next to him…

"You!" When he saw the last girl, Karkat pounced, hands aimed for the throat of Maximum Ride. He pinned her to the floor, choking her. "Do you know what happened since you managed to escape?! The f*cking security was f*cking upgraded, we were almost ready to f*cking escape when you f*cking broke out of this f*cking hell hole! We were almost _FREE_, but then that f*cking *sshole whitecoat decide to f*cking break you f*ckers out, and we were f*cking _left behind_, like we were f*cking _garbage_, worthless, _useless_! It got _worse_ once their '_prize experiments_' were f*cking broken out! Terezi lost her f*cking _sight_, Tavros is f*cking _paralyzed _from the waist down, Vriska f*cking lost a f*cking _arm _and a messed up her eye, and Aradia was almost f*cking _killed _by one of their f*cking tests, ALL BECAUSE YOU WERE F*CKING BROKEN OUT OF THIS F*CKING HELLHOLE!"

Before he could continue, Equius pulled Karkat off Max, who sat up, breathing heavily. And of course, Karkat most definitely did _not_ want to be stopped.

"LET ME GO YOU F*CKING *SSHOLE! SHE NEEDS TO F*CKING PAY FOR WHAT SHE F*CKING CAUSED! LET ME F*CKING GO! SHE F*CKING HURT YOU GUYS AND SHE NEEDS TO F*CKING PAY FOR WHAT SHE F*CKING DID!" Gamzee ambled over to Equius and Karkat, laying a hand on the larger male's shoulder.

"Let me handle this mother f*cker." The taller male pulled the much smaller Karkat out of Equius' arms and into his lap as he sat on the floor. "Shoosh." He rubbed Karkat's back and patted him, shooshing him all the while. "Shoosh, it'll be okay Karbro, shoosh, it'll be fine, you don't need to avenge us, shoosh, we'll be fine. It's okay, it's okay. Shoosh."

When Karkat had finally stopped struggling, he was hugged by Gamzee. Burying his face in his friend's tattered purple shirt, he started quietly crying. Was he turning into a monster? No, he already was one, he just knew it. Why?! Why couldn't he be _normal_?! He roughly dried his eyes off and stood up, looking at the floor.

"Sorry for attacking you." Karkat looked up to see Max rubbing her neck, where he could see bruises forming.

"Eh, it's fine, I've had worse. Apology accepted." Karkat nodded, opening his mouth to say something, but he was cut off by several erasers coming in, grabbing Karkat and dragging him out of the room.

"Karkitty! No!" He smiled slightly.

"I'll be fine! Equius, take care of her!" The larger male nodded, placing a hand on Nepeta's shoulder as tears streamed down her face, leaning forward to try and grab him, but the doors slammed shut, leaving them trapped in the room.

* * *

"No! Karkitty… No…" Nepeta broke down sobbing, curling up in a ball as Equius tried to pat her on the back as gently as possible. "He can't go! He can't! He can't leave me behind…"

Max and the others watched awkwardly as Nepeta sobbed. Iggy jumped as someone snuck up behind him.

"Ooh… You smell interesting… Kinda light and fluffy, subdued." Iggy's face wrinkled in confusion.

"Smelled? Can't you see?" Terezi laughed.

"Ha! Nope! They burned my eyes, and now I can only see and taste colors." Iggy's eyebrows shot up his forehead.

"You're blind too?!"

"Yep! And I'm guessing you're blind too?" Iggy nodded absentmindedly. "That's awesome! Now I finally have someone who can relate to me!" The blind male grinned.

"I know! The flock keeps forgetting I'm blind and they're all like, 'Oops, sorry Iggy, I forgot that you can't see that we moved the couch in front of the stairs.'" He said in a poorly done imitation of Max's voice. Terezi laughed.

"That's funny. I just end up annoying Karkat with my 'color fetish' and the whole licking things to read and whatnot. It's hilarious when he turns red and starts fuming." Iggy snorted.

"I bet it is."

"Ooh! So you're one of the six who are part bird, right?" Iggy nodded.

"Yeah. Why do you want to know?"

"Ooh, just curious. We only have two bird kids here, and they _hate_ taking out their wings for some reason. I mean, they only take their wings out to be clipped." Iggy tensed.

"They clip our wings?!" This was exclaimed to everyone in the room. The other flock members froze.

"Well, yeah… I mean maybe they won't clip you guy's, but they clipped John and Dave's. They didn't clip my wings, but-"

"Wait, you're a bird kid?!" Terezi raised an eyebrow.

"Don't jump to conclusions. I said that I had _wings_ not that I had _bird_ wings."

"Then what are you?" Iggy the gestured to the rest of the room. "And what are they?" Terezi grinned.

"Well, I happen to be part dragon-" She was cut off by Gazzy.

"That's AWESOME!"

"You bet it is. Anyways, Nepeta is part cat; Feferi is part fish; Aradia is part ram-or a sheep or something, I'm not sure; Rose is part- honestly, I don't what she is, some experimental DNA or something; Jade is part dog; Tavros is part bull; Sollux also has experimental DNA- a different one than Rose though, don't even try to suggest that they're related, they don't like it; Eridan is also part fish- seahorse I think, maybe some other fish, I really don't know; I am part dragon- though I have no clue where they got the DNA for it, since they don't have a dragon; John and Dave are part bird- I think Dave is part raven, even if his wings are orange; Vriska is part spider- and believe me, the effect is not pretty; Kanaya is part vampire bat, I believe- I just know she needs to drink blood, and we have to feed her most of the time; Equius is part horse- even if you can't tell, he mostly got recessive genes; and Gamzee is part goat, of all things. I honestly have no clue on how he's so damn blood thirsty with just goat and human genes." By the end of Terezi's speech, most of the flock was gaping, with the exception of Iggy, who tilted his head, confused.

"But what about Karkat? You never said what he was." A flash of a thought flitted across his face. "He isn't… _normal_ is he?" Terezi snorted.

"Hell if I know! Karkels doesn't seem to be normal though, but he won't tell us what he is, soooo…" She shrugged. "There's no way to know." Iggy frowned.

"That's weird. He hasn't told anyone what he is?" Terezi nodded.

"Yeah. There's this faint scent lingering around him, but I can't tell what it is! Whenever the subject is brought up, he always seems a little nervous or scared. I've always thought that he might just be scared of either what he is, or the powers that come with it." The blind male shrugged.

"Sounds legit." The girl grinned and the two struck up another conversation about how stupid some of the others could be, and how much it sucked to be blind.

"How did you become blind?"

"They tried to enhance my night vision, and then BOOM! No vision at all. How about you?"

"Me? Um… They were testing my sight and stuff, and they forced me to too close to intense light and heat, and it burned my eyes." Iggy flinched.

"Ouch."

"That isn't even the beginning of it." Any further conversation was cut off by the doors opening, and a bleeding Karkat tossed in.

"Karkels!" "Karkitty!"

Terezi and Nepeta ran over to the unconscious male's side, hauling him to the middle of the room. His shirt was stained with blood, and clung to his gaunt figure, except where gashes in the material revealed cuts along his torso.

"Verdammt, they must of put him through the agility course again. Those look like the spinning blades' work," Vriska muttered, eyes wide.

"No time to worry about how this happened, we need to patch up his wounds pronto! He's already lost a lot of blood!" Terezi was panicked, even if this wasn't the first time it had happened.

"Fine. I'm guessing you need silk then?" Terezi nodded.

"Yeah. But first, we need to get this shirt off of him. Nep?" The younger girl nodded, taking a claw and carefully cutting the blood soaked shirt off of him while Vriska moved over to a shadowy corner to produce the silk needed for stitches.

Once Nepeta had cut his shirt off, the flock stifled a gasp. Karkat's torso was covered in scars and bruises, cuts and scrapes. It was also covered in blood, but that's beside the point. Currently, they were focusing on a few large gashes on his back and ribs.

Suddenly, Vriska came up from behind Terezi, causing her to jump. "Here's your silk. Who's gonna stitch him up?" The blind girl sighed, adjusting her red glasses.

"Can you do it? He just smells like red. I can't do anything. But so help me, if you hurt him…" She trailed off, letting the threat hang in the air. Vriska knelt, forcing Terezi to the side.

"I won't hurt him!" Surprising the flock, she unfolded eight spider legs from her back**((Think of Doctor Octopus from spider man))**, She threaded the bone needles, her extra appendages making quick work of the cuts on his chest and stomach. Flipping him over, the flock's attention was drawn to the two parallel scars on his shoulder blades. Max nudged Terezi.

"Where did those big scars come from?"

"Which ones? He has so many, probably because he takes our testing sessions whenever he can. He-"

"The two parallel scars on his back."

"Oh, those? Yeah, he used to have bat wings or something, but they were grafted on and not part of his DNA. He could move them, but he couldn't fly, so they got sawed off. We could hear his screams from all the way across the lab. We tend to not talk about it, even if he never seemed to really miss them." By the end of her mini speech, the flock looked horrified.

"They… _cut off his wings_?" Teresi nodded.

"Uh huh. Oh look! Vriska, he's starting to wake up!" The spider girl hurriedly finished sewing as Karkat stirred awake.

"What… What happened? I remember going into the agility course… Designed for CatNep… It was too small… For me to make it… And where's my shirt?" Karkat looked around, seeing a pile of blood soaked rags that Aradia was using to try and soak up the blood on the floor. "Oh… It was the spinning blades… Wasn't it?" Vriska shrugged.

"Probably." Terezi walked up.

"I'm sure this conversation is wonderful, but Karkat, you need to rest, you lost a ton of blood. C'mon you _know_ you need to sleep." Said male opened his mouth to protest, but was cut off by the sleeping gas once again filling the room.

"Oh come _on_," Karkat groaned before blacking out.

* * *

**Haha! New story! Even though I have, like, six stories in progress already, and I really don't need to start another story, I couldn't pass up on writing this idea.**

**If you haven't figured it out, the trolls' DNA is mostly based off their lusus', excluding Sollux, Karkat, and Feferi. Sollux and Feferi because… Well, their lusii weren't earth creatures, so… Feferi got fish DNA, because she's a seadweller, and Sollux got some unknown DNA because, like Rose, I didn't know what else to do. Karkat however, needed something to serve as his 'mutation' other than blood color. You'll find out what it is later.**

**As for John, Rose, and Dave(I think Jade is self explanatory), it goes as follows: John is part bird because of the whole heir of breath and the windy thing. Dave is part bird because of Davesprite. Rose… I couldn't figure anything else for her. Sorry.**

**I hope this story doesn't suck too much, because I actually have hope for it.**


	2. Chapter 2

'**Ey, Skye here, presenting to you… Chapter two! But first, I want to thank those who reviewed. It really means alot that you like my story enough to comment on it!**

**Warning: Also contains dear little Karkles, be prepared for cursing.**

* * *

When Karkat woke up, it was to an aching body and a cramped crate. Between the bars, he could tell that everyone else seemed to be awake- with the exception of Gamzee, but that was normal, and the flock.

"You know something I've never gotten? These crates. Those *sshole scientists _know_ we're not dogs- er, sorry Jade. We're f*cking _people_, even if we're not completely human! Honestly, isn't having 90% of human genes enough to at least qualify as a person to them? Apparently not as-" Angel, who had apparently woken up, cut him off.

"What do you mean '90% human'? I thought you guys were 98% human, like us!" Eridan smiled bitterly.

"As much as it pains me to tell you this, you actually are 10% bird, not twwo percent. I am vvery sorry."

"Like hell you are you *thhole!"

"Shut up Sollux. No one wwants to hear your stupid lisp. Keep your glubbin' to yourself." The two glared at each other, the tension evident.

"Hey, mister Eridan?" Said person, looked at Angel.

"Wwhat is it?"

"Mister Sollux is flipping you the bird in his mind." Eridan's head snapped back to meet the other boy's mismatched glare. Max sighed.

"Angel… Please stop reading people's minds and creating tension. Okay sweetie?" Karkat raised an eyebrow.

"She sounds like our fellow mind controller." Vriska's head popped into view in her shadowy crate.

"Did I hear someone mention my _amazing_ powers?" The male groaned.

"Ugh, the gloating. Vriska, meet Angel, the freaky mind reading child."

"Hey, I'm not freaky!" Vriska smirked.

"Get used to it kid, he's always like that."

"... He seems like he's a grumpy person." The older female laughed.

"I like you! Grumpy is the perfect word to describe him!" Karkat did something that was most definitely _not_ pouting. Why would you think _that_?

"... I hate you guys." The spidergirl laughed harder.

"We love you too Karkles! In a completely platonic way, that is." The grumpy male not-pouted harder, only fueling Vriska's amusement.

Iggy smirked. "Dude, this guy is totally reminding me of Fang. We should all go to a random corner and block our ears, letting them have grumpy-man bonding time." Fang grunted, clearly not appreciating the offer.

Nudge smiled widely. "Ooh, ooh, remember that one time when it was Fang's birthday and Iggy dressed up like a clown and snuck into his room and sat on Fang's bed and when he woke up Iggy was just like, 'Helllloooo, Fangles,' in a creepy clown voice, and then Fang screamed like a little girl and didn't speak to us for a whole week? Not that he talks that much anyways, but still! I don't think I could go a whole _week _without talking! A week is _sooo_ long!"

Gazzy mumbled something under his breath.

"What was that, Gazzy?" Nudge says sweetly.

Jade, clearly not understanding that Nudge was using her I-may-or-may-not-be-about-to-rip-your-balls-off voice, spoke cheerfully. "Oh, he just said that he doubts you'd be able to go 10 minutes without talking, let alone a week, and from what I've seen so far, I'm kind of inclined to agree with him." Nudge glared.

"So help me Gazzy, when we get out of these crates, be prepared to get the worst thrashing of your life." Said male gulped, obviously not looking forward to it, but honestly, who would? Nudge may be a girly girl, but she can pack a punch.

Jade looked slightly apologetically at Gazzy. "Sorry. Now I know what her sweet voice means, and it's freaking terrifying."

Gazzy blushed and laughed. "It's okay, I'm kind of used to it."

"However," continued Jade playfully, "I'm not getting in Nudge's way. You're on your own for that." They both chuckled, and Dave looked pissed, but quickly recovered.

"So when are we gonna break out of this place?" He said cooly. "We've got a few veterans- time to blow this pop stand, right?" Karkat nodded grimly.

"Yeah. They're planning to get rid of us soon. I say we start planning, then execute it when we find an opportunity. All in favor, say yay." A chorus of "Yay"'s filled the room, until a quiet rattling could be heard.

Everyone went silent. Then it was more obvious- a rattling door handle. Someone was out there, listening or guarding. Max reached the conclusion first.

"Oh, no. This is bad. Very bad." Karkat's expression darkened even more.

"Sh*t. This is bad. And we can't even- sh*t!"

The Erasers burst into the room, opening Kanaya and Dave's cages and hauling them out.

"Experiment K4n4y4M reporting for testing. Experiment D3tf35g reporting for inspection."

"Dave!" Jade slammed against her cage door. "No!" It was no use, obviously. Dave smiled sadly at her.

"I'll be back soon, J. They always need experiments, don't they?" He said with a hint of bitterness, before being dragged out by the Erasers. Jade sank to her knees.

"No," She whispered. "What will they do with him? And why Kanaya, too?"

"Well, I think its quite obvious," said Karkat darkly. "The room's bugged."

"And we can't remove the audio spies or cameras, whichever, without being recorded," added Max. "And as for Kanaya? Simple. Dave was the one who brought up escaping, so he's being punished. But Kanaya? She said nothing, perfect for their use. She was taken as the innocent one, to keep us in line for now and remind us of their sick, twisted power over us. If they keep taking innocents instead of instigators, we may not ever be able to escape."

John chuckled grimly. "That's only one factor. Kan's a vampire of sorts. She feeds off blood, and we're the only ones who she can drink from. They're letting us know that, due to our actions, she's slowly starving, and its our fault if she dies. Right now, all we can do is behave and hope they won't do anything too bad." The others in the room nodded silently.

"But… What about Dave? What will they do to him?" Jade asked quietly. John sighed sadly.

"I'm sorry, sis, but… We can only hope."

* * *

_**Aaand... end chapter! Wow. Darkest thing I've ever written or helped write.**_

**Yeah… It is kinda dark… Oh well. I liked the way this turned out, since we basically just took turns writing it.**

_**Just so you don't think Skye's crazy, I'm Beth. Haven't shown up on this story yet. So hi! She's not suffering from multiple-personality disorder or whatever it's called!**_

**Hmm.. I forgot that you hadn't showed up on this story yet. And it's called Dissociative Identity Disorder. Just saying. Also, I discovered how ridiculous it is to try and type with their accents, so I kept it to a minimum.**

_**Oh my gods, Skye, you act like I even care what it's called! :P And I don't know how to do their accents anyway, so that'll be all you.**_

**Yeah… You need to get on the Homestuck wiki page. Anyways, please comment, it means a ton, thanks for reading, bye!**

_**Also it helps figure out where the story's going, since we're pretty much playing it by ear. Bye!**_


	3. Chapter 3

**3rd chapter! I started writing this the same day I wrote up the last chapter too, so I'm on a roll!**

**Warning: Cursing**

* * *

The kids sat in silence and waited in a tense silence. Jade bit her lip nervously. The tension in the room was so evident, and if they were allowed knives, she knew they could probably cut it. Heck, she could almost _taste_ it. They were all worried, for Kanaya and for Dave.

Angel sighed. She was worried for the two who had been taken away, but honestly, did Jade really have to think so loudly?

'_I really wish that we could talk to each other mentally. Then the cameras or mics can't record any plans._' The younger girl started.

'_That's a great plan Jade!'_ The dog girl looked around the room wide-eyed. _'Oh, sorry. It's me, Angel. I'm going to connect everyone via mental network. Act normal.'_ The older girl shrugged.

'_Okay...'_ Jade waited a moment. Could Angel really do it?

'_Hello everyone! It's me, Angel. Act normal while we talk. Any suggestions on what to do?'_** (Thoughts will use quirks as to show who is thinking.)**

'_I SAY WE FIND OUT WHAT THOSE JACK*SSES ARE F*CKING DOING TO DAVE AND KANAYA. ANY OBJECTIONS?'_

'_H3H3! YOU DO C4R3 K4RKL3S! 1'M 4LL FOR F1ND1NG TH3M!'_

'_SHUT UP. ANYBODY ELSE WANT TO SPEAK?'_

'_i t00 w0uld like to kn0w what they are d0ing."_

'_D→ I also would like to know what those 100d scientists are doing to our comrades.'_

'_2ame here. ii two want two know what torture they have been 2ujected two.'_

'_you sound like a glubbin' idiot. but i wwant to knoww wwhat has become of kan and dave.'_

'_W)(ale, I'm in too!'_

'_I'd LiKe To SeE wHaT's MoThErF*CkInG uP wItH kAnSiS aNd DaVeBrO.'_

'_:33 I'd like to know as soon as pawsible if they are still alive!'_

'_uHHH,,,, I'D LIKE TO,,, UM,,,, KNOW TOO.'_

'_As much as I haaaaaaaate to agree with Taaaaaaaavros, we need to investig8te what those 8*stards are uuuuuuuup to!'_

'_yeah, we reaaaaaaaally should check up on them.' _**((John))**

'_im really worried, can we please check on him?' _**((Jade))**

'_I too am very worried about them.' _**((Rose))**

'_Okay, I'll connect to the scientists watching them. They'll serve as a sort of camera. Though, just warning you guys, I'm probably going to pass out after this from the strain of setting up the mental network and seeing into the scientists' minds. I'm only 8 years old, you know.' _Angel proceeded to scrunch her face in intense concentration and reach out to the scientists' minds.

After several minutes of increasing doubts in Angel's abilities, a shaky image appeared in their minds. Everyone shuddered, watching Kanaya being forced to run through trap-filled tunnels to reach the blood that she needed, only for it to be snatched away again and again. She had already suffered several minor injuries and was cradling one arm like it was broken. Angel stretched out even further and focused in on the room number: **228**. Then the image changed.

_Dave was strapped to a chair in a nice office. Across from him was a man that couldn't be seen fully, because his was the mind they were in. The man had smooth but old looking hands and was talking to Dave. "We can help each other, Dave. Your friends are doomed, but you can be saved. Help us, join us, and you will have whatever you desire. You can train with the best of the best, hone your abilities-" here Dave interrupted him with a sneer._

_"Yeah, instead of being locked up in a cage all day?"_

_They felt the man smile calmly. "That is for your own good. Otherwise, you would rip each other apart for dominance. We had great plans for you all, but some of your... friends are unstable. You can help us save the world."_

_"Rip each other apart? You guys are the ones who run us through your twisted tests and almost kill us! We're not fighting for dominance, we're bonding to LIVE!"_

_"Ah, yes, bonding. But some of them are closer to you, perhaps? And not just their physical cages?" Dave remains stone faced at the horrible joke. "Now, stop, Dave. I have seen inside your mind-"_

_"And it was the loveliest thing I've ever been through-"_

_Suddenly serious, the man states coldly, "Sarcasm is not appreciated. I tried to be considerate-"_

_"Yeah, I so prefer being strapped to a chair than being in a cage with my friends, I'm forever indebted to you-"_

_"But now I will cut to the chase. I will make this as simple as I can- I have seen inside your mind and know how you feel about Jade. I will let you two go, free, forever."_

_"What?"_

_"If, if you agree to tell me everything about your friends, their weaknesses, and do an occasional favor for me now and again. Think about it. No more cages, no more Erasers, just a normal life. Don't you want that?" The offer sinks in for several seconds._

_Quietly, Dave says, "Yeah, I want that. It's my dream." The man's face breaks into a twisted and triumphant smile._

* * *

**Duh duh duh! Cliffhanger!**

_**I feel like a real Rick Riordan now... the power of evil courses through my veins... MWAHAHAHA**_

…**. I'm leaving now…. If you need me, I'll be hiding in the Creepypasta fandom….**

_**Eh, she's too easily freaked out. I'm cool now. Review, tell us what you think Dave and the others are going to do next! Btw, I wrote that ending, not Skye, so if you have flames write it to Beth. Adios!**_

**Ohh, did someone say flames? *Reads above.* Oh… Wrong kind. Bye~**

_**Yeah, I'm pretty sure she's a closet arsonist. Over and out!**_

**Hey! I'm not an arsonist! It's mild, completely unacted on pyromania! END.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Once again, starting on the same day the last was finished….**

**Warnings: …. Honestly, you should know by now. Cursing, torture via scientists.**

* * *

**Recap:**

_Quietly, Dave says, "Yeah, I want that. That's my dream." The man breaks into a twisted and triumphant smile._

* * *

"What?!" screamed Jade.

"Ssh," whispers Max. "I don't think he's done."

_ "That's my dream. You know what else is in there?"_

_ The man looks mildly interested. "Yes, Dave?"_

_ "Karkat's giving Terezi a tiny smile, breaking his stupid tough-grumpy-guy facade. Tavros has forgotten about his unusable legs for once. Nudge is chasing Gazzy and Iggy for some stupid prank they pulled." The man looks confused, and Dave continues, his voice slightly louder. "We're ALL free, free of your sick, twisted mind games and torture, living normal lives and embracing our talents and falling in love, because no matter what you've done to us, we're still PEOPLE, and you know what else?" The man is alarmed now, Dave's voice angry and loud, "In my dream, we have ground EVERY ONE OF YOUR EVIL MINDS INTO PIECES OF ERASER FOOD SO YOU WILL NEVER TOUCH AND MUTATE ANOTHER INNOCENT PERSON AGAIN!"_

**(Quick line break A/N: Dave's speech… IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL!**

_**I know. I'm amazing.**_

**Haha. But seriously. I'm trying not to cry from all the feels.)**

_Dave is on his feet, chair strapped, to his back, yelling into the man's face, who is no longer even attempting to conceal his anger. "Guards! Take him away. Let his... _friend_ suck his blood dry, for all I care. I have no use for it." The word 'friend' is spat out violently as the guards unstrap Dave from his chair and take him out of the room._

Jade burst into tears. "Oh, Dave..." and, as promised, Angel fainted to the floor of her cage, but was back within a couple of minutes. "Oh gog… Dave…"

Her sobbing was interrupted by the door slamming open and two still figures being tossed in. "Dave! Kanaya!" The room was filled by the sickly-sweet odor of the sleeping agent filling the room. "No! Dave…" The world went black.

When Dave woke up, he immediately noticed that he was in his crate. Relief filled his veins as he counted everyone there, Karkat, Rose, Kanaya, Jade- Crap! Kan was probably starving! She refused to feed off him, resulting in them being knocked out.

"Guys! Wake up!" Dave cursed under his breath. They weren't going to wake up easily. "EVERYBODY WAKE THE F*CK UP!" Everybody jolted awake.

"Holy th*t Karkat, wath that you?" Karkat snorted and rubbed his head.

"No, the f*ck*ss who yelled was actually not me, believe it or not."

"Ha, yeah it was me." Twenty-one pairs of eyes turned to glare at him. "I'm sorry that I had to wake you up to discus the urgent matter of Kan. She hasn't eaten. Who's turn is it to feed her?

"Stop talking about me like I'm not here Dave. And it was Karkat's turn, I believe. Right?" The grumpy male nodded.

"Yeah. They-" Karkat bumped on his cage door, falling out. "Oh f*ck no. I don't want another f*cking roaming day. Please tell me this isn't a roaming day." Dave pushed his door.

"Nope. Just you." Kanaya opened her door.

"And apparently me too. I expect they did this so I would be guaranteed to feed off the weakest member in our pack, guaranteeing that they won't reach full strength. In this case, it is Karkat." Said male groaned and stuck out a wrist towards her.

"Kan, less talk, more doing." Kanaya shrugged, grabbing Karkat's wrist, unwrapping the bandages wound around it.

"Okay." The girl sank her fangs into the younger male, who gritted his teeth and looked away as the flock watched in morbid fascination.

Once Kanaya had finished, she wiped her mouth on her sleeve, looking up at the flock.

"What?"

"That. Was. AWESOME!" Gazzy started bouncing in his crate as Karkat shakily tried to bandage his arm.

"We'll see if you still feel that way after she's fed off of _you_." The older male finished wrapping up his arm and woozily stumbled back to his crate. Kanaya looked at him worriedly.

"Karkat, did I take too much blood? You should have stopped me when you were feeling lightheaded!"

"Yeah… Yeah… You still needed it more…" With that, Karkat promptly passed out.

* * *

** … I think I make them pass out too much. Oh well.**

* * *

After a moment of mildly panicked silence, Iggy, being incredibly Iggy-ish, said, "Well, then."

"Eloquent," snorted Eridan.

"Should we be worried? And, like, actually try to revive him?" asked Nudge.

Eridan shook his head. "Nah, this happens sometimes. If we piss off the scientists they don't regulate the blood intake and wait for us to come to on our own, but Kar is pretty tough. He'll be up in, say, 15 minutes."

"Couldn't I just go in his mind and wake him up?" wondered Angel.

"Umm... I guess... wait!" said Terezi suddenly. Angel froze. "We've never had a human-mind reader, so I didn't know, but I just realized that's a really bad idea. You see, if you wake him up mentally, then his body processes will start waking up again, and will need more blood... whereas if we let him wake up naturally, which as Eridan has stated, should happen in approximately 15 minutes, his systems don't need as much oxygen or nutrients, because they're not doing anything, so less blood cells are needed to carry that stuff, so more blood cells can be produced and stored for use, in a way."

Max blinked. "Okay, you lost me."

Nudge, surprisingly, grinned excitedly. "I get it! That makes total sense!" When Gazzy stared at her in disbelief, she shrugged, mildly offended, and said, "What? One time I paid attention in science class somewhere!"

Angel relaxed and stated, "So I don't wake him up. What now? 15 more minutes to kill in my life."

Gazzy and Iggy smiled evilly in unison. "Truth or Dare!"

Max rolled her eyes. "First of all, no. Truth or Dare with you two? I'd be wearing pink designer stuff for a week with a pool of ketchup in my shower, IF we weren't in a lab. Second of all, in case you didn't notice, we're stuck in freaking CAGES, so the dares would pretty much suck."

"We do kinda need to bond, though," Jade pointed out.

"Great! Let's start with you and me, sweet," said Dave, jokingly perverted.

Jade snorted. "Piss off."

Dave looked mildly hurt for a fraction of a second, but then regained his grin. "Okay, but I'm kinda in a cage, so as my nearest neighbor, it's probably landing on you." Jade then proceeded to roll her eyes and ignore him.

"I think we should go around and say one thing we would do if- if the scientists set us free. You know, talk about what we dream of. I, for one, would want to buy 2 chocolate milkshakes, drink one, and dump the other on some mean queen bee." She clutched her black locks and mimicked, "My HAIR! And these pants are DESIGNER! How am I going to LIVE?" Everyone smiled. She did a pretty dead-ringer impression for the average popular girl.

"I would touch everything I could, soak in their colors, meet another blind person-"

"Hey!" protested Iggy.

"-besides you," continued Terezi. "No offense. A normal human blind person."

"Find a really big hat," said Aradia, "and when anyone asked why I was wearing it, say I have massive ram horns and it's top secret so they can't tell anyone. Then run away, laughing maniacally."

"Wow," stated Vriska, after a brief silence. "That was interesting. I don't know, I would probably want to learn a language, maybe German." Max raised an eyebrow.

"I thought you knew German." Vriska sighed.

"Only a little." John smiled.

"That's cool. My dream is to be able to fly so high, I can touch the clouds." Kanaya nodded.

"I'd love to do that too, but I really just want to be a fashion designer." Nudge grinned.

"Me too!" Rose smiled softly, looking at the floor of her cage.

"I want to start a family, and maybe own a library. That would be cool." **(Rose)**

"I would become the world'th betht computer programmer." **(Sollux)**

"I wwant to buy a house and livve by the sea, wwatching the wwaves." **(Eridan)**

"I, uh, I want to get robotic legs and, uh, be able to, um, walk again." **(Tavros)**

"I would like to open a robotics shop." **(Equius)**

"It would be cool to open a vet to help injured animals." **(Feferi)**

"Ooh! I'll help you! We can help animals as much as pawsible!" **(Nepeta)**

"I'd like to run a motherf*ckin' spa." **(Gamzee)**

"I want to be a DJ. A famous one, not some idiot." **(Dave)** A quiet voice spoke up.

"My dream is for everyone of those dreams to come true. We're all free and happy. We're all together, one huge family." Nepeta gasped.

"Karkat! You're up!" He nodded.

"Yeah…" Terezi looked at him closely.

"That's really your dream? For us to be happy?" Karkat smiled a little.

"Yeah. I want you guys, all of you, even if you annoy me, to be happy, even if I'm not there to enjoy it. If you're happy, if you're safe, if you're free, then I'm happy. No matter how bad my situation is, knowing that you're all free and happy will be enough." Everyone was quiet, thinking about that. After a few seconds, Karkat said, grinning slightly, "Anyways, that's more inspiring than dumping milkshakes on b*tches, no matter how funny it would be." Everyone laughed. "So, time to... nap..." Everybody got it, and Angel spoke into their minds: _'Okay, guys, we're hooked up. We've probably got about 3 hours before I'll need a break or pass out. So, Max? You start?'_

_ 'So here's what we're going to do...'_

* * *

**Aaaaaaand we're kinda trying to lighten it up a little… And failing somewhat. Oh well. School is about to start(August 26th for us), so our nonexistent schedule may vary.**

_**Just in case this wasn't clear, Max is only starting the plan, since she's been broken out before, even though she wasn't in charge or anything the first time. Karkat and the other strong strategic thinkers are working on it, too.**_

**Yeah.**

_**Please review, since we're not actually sure how they're going to escape, and reviews are motivators!**_

**Actually, we do have a plan, but if you have ideas, that'd be great!**

_**Adios!**_

**Ciao!**


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